Aeorus Ring
The Aeorus Ring is an orbital network surrounding Earth. With a diameter of 14,100km, it is the largest artifical building ever created by humanity, and has survived the Martian-Terran War. The Aeorus Ring's primary function is an orbital shipyard, but functions as a harbor and shipping port, as well being self sufficient in food, water and energy. Currently, no faction or state claims the Aeorus Ring, with the Sky City of Zalem being the only major user of the Ring. Construction The Aeorus Ring was designed around Birch's Model, however, this design would be heavily adapted by Astrobeme to function as a shipyard. The Ring began construction in 2327CE, right at the beginning of the Martian Cold War, as part of the HALO RING act, the UNE provided all necessary funds to produce an orbital shipyard in order to close the gap between the UNE and URM naval capacity. However, construction was slow in the first three years. The Ring's primary superstructure would only be finished in 2339CE after substantial development by private corporations such as Astrobeme. The construction process would be plagued by failures and large disasters, such as the collapse of 200km of superstructure, the resulting debris struck Okinawa Island, destroying the island completely and killing up to 700,000 people, the impact force was equivalent to 20kT of TNT. This collapse prompted safer construction methods and compensation totalling up to $7 trillion for family members. Construction was also slow due to numerous elevator failures at Colombo and San Lorenzo, causing almost 3 months worth of delays. Despite early setbacks and a disaster, construction work quickly returned to schedule as a result of Martian engineering assistance, as part of attempts by Martian government at detente and construction supplies shipped in through the Colonies, avoiding the unreliable Terran Elevators. Construction would be completed 2360CE, seven years before the outbreak of the Martian-Terran War. Strategic Importance The Ring's primary purpose was to provide a fleet anchorage and drydock facility for UNE Navy, but the delayed construction prevented any major UNE vessels to be completed, leaving only Vesta Naval Treaty vessels in the UNE navy. However, as the Ring's construction was so resource intensive, huge developments grew around the elevators on Earth and Elevator Nexus's on the Ring itself. Thus the ring became the de facto point of entry to and from Earth, large settlements were also present, provididng solar energy to power Earth. Martian-Terran War In the wake of the first engagement of the war, ships in drydock on the Ring were rushed through construction, most notably the UNN Seneca and UNN Pink Elephant, with a total of 27 ships rushed. These rushed ships were all part of the new UNE fleet, as envisioned in the 60 Fleet Plan. The contribution of the newer ships was huge, as despite being partially unfinished, they were more resilent against URMN railguns and missiles, whilst utilising more advanced anti-matter torpedoes. The 27 ships formed the Aeorus Defence Fleet, primarily tasked in protecting vital shipping lanes between Luna and Earth. The Ring is also equipped with 28kg railguns and directed plasma weapons, making any large scale assault on the Ring difficult and costly. However, the Ring did not significant range, only capable of protecting Luna using lighter 7kg rounds, effectively useless against URMN warships and near impossible to hit smaller vessels due to distance. Battle of Sector One Sector One was the largest shipyard on the Aeorus ring, and housed the UNN headquarters. The battle would begin with a large bombardment from URMN ships based near Luna, followed by the Martian Marines and 1st and 2nd Assualt Corps. The battle would initally be in favour of Mars, as expected defences were destroyed and UNEA lacked sufficent numbers to repel the attack. However, the battle would rapidly slow down after the URMN Regional Command Centre was destroyed by groundfire, and up to 70% of Martian drone units were disabled, other independent drone units taking command of local drones and biological and cyborg troops being unaffected. The sudden loss of the majority of the URM assualt force forced most of the troops to retreat to the landing zones. Offensive operations by URM were stopped, in addition UNE reinforcements were arriving from the Earth. For the next 79 hours, evacuations and scuttling of drones were commenced. Within 100 hours of bombardment, URM forces withdrew, suffering heavy casualties. War for the Sky Cities The capitulation of UNE forces on Luna and the loss of the majority of the UNN fleet gave URM an opportunity to bring the war to Earth.